Website Dr. Claus Kühnel

This site lists publications in English language and links to further information.

About the Author:

Dr. Claus Kühnel studied at and graduated from the Technical University of Dresden (D) in the field of information electronics. This was followed by an education in biomedical engineering.

Professionally, he is responsible for the development of embedded systems for lab devices.

In addition to his professional tasks, he has published numerous articles and books on microcontroller related issues.

An actual field of interest is the Internet of Things with its different aspects.

Building an IoT Node for less than 15 $

The IoT is a giant network of connected “things” (which also includes people). The relationship will be between people-people, people-things, and things-things. The new rule for the future is going to be, “anything that can be connected, will be connected.”

In this book I consider the frontend of the IoT – the so-called IoT node. This IoT node is connected to sensors and actors and to the network. Our IoT node here uses WLAN connectivity to the network by which it is very easy to integrate it in an existing office or home network.

This task can be fulfilled by a lot of wireless network capable microcontrollers as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone and further more equipped with a Wifi device. But the use of such complex devices is not in focus here. The goal is to use a very cheap device to build a compact IoT node.

The title of this book defines the goal – building an IoT Node for less than $ 15. The ESP8266 microcontroller is the base for this journey.

considers the Arduino Yún and the Dragino Yún Shield as components closing the gap between a typical microcontroller application and connection to the cloud.

Arduino Yún combines the classic Arduino with an Atheros AR9331 system-on-a-chip (SoC) for wireless access points and routers platforms, which uses the Linux distribution Linino (OpenWRT) operating system. The Dragino Yun Shield expands any Arduino with network capabilities by the Atheros AR9331.The combination of microcontroller and Linux device supports the whole chain from sensor to software applications in the cloud by hardware and software. This book deals with the Arduino and the Linux device and their interaction, without the need of detailed Linux knowledge.

This book introduces microcontroller theory using the Parallax BASIC Stamp I, II, and IIsx.

The BASIC Stamp microcontroller is based on Microchip's PIC hardware with some modifications and is very approachable for beginning users. Once the basic theory is established, BASIC Stamp, 2/E walks the reader through applications suitable for designers as well as the home hobbyist. These applications can be used as is or as a basis for further modifications to suit specific design needs. BASIC Stamp, 2/E thoroughly explains the hardware base of the BASIC Stamp microcontroller including internal architecture, the peripheral functions, as well as providing the technical data sheets for each kind of chip. The authors also explain the BASIC Stamp development systems including DOS and Windows-based tools in tremendous detail. As an added feature, BASIC Stamp, 2/E includes full instructions for using PBASIC programming and formatting. The book provides many specific applications for microcontroller use, complete with programming instructions, including: single instructions, multiple instructions, interfacing directions, and more complex applications such as motion detection, light measurement, and home automation.

The AVR RISC Microcontroller Handbook is a comprehensive guide to designing with Atmel's new controller family, which is designed to offer high speed and low power consumption at a lower cost. The main text is divided into three sections: hardware, which covers all internal peripherals; software, which covers programming and the instruction set; and tools, which explains using Atmel's Assembler and Simulator (available on the Web) as well as IAR's C compiler.